Bring On The Wrinkles!
In Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, aging is one of the major themes. In the story, the theme of aging is presented as being inevitable and depending on how you look at it, aging can be shown with either a negative or positive outlook. In the book, there are two characters who respond to aging differently. Septimus lives his life the way he wants, not the way he is expected to, while Mrs. Dalloway lives a completely predictable life.
Near the end when Mrs. Dalloway learns of Septimus’s suicide, she thinks back to her own life when she felt “the terror; the overwhelming incapacity, one’s parents giving it into one’s hands, this life, to be lived to the end, to be walked with serenely; there was in the depths of the her heart an awful fear.” (185) The thought she has conveys the belief that one is brought into this world, expected to live until they pass away:
As you “age,” you are expected to have certain responsibilities and you are expected to make achievements. Right when you are born, people expect that you will make a contribution to society as you grow older.
Mrs. Dalloway lived as she was expected to: she threw parties, she bought flowers like a normal person, etc. This is the complete opposite of Septimus, who does not do what is expected of him. This could explain why Clarissa admires Septimus, because he does what he wants, not what society wants—he does not “conform.”
In the beginning of the book, Mrs. Dalloway looks into the window of the store front and sees an open copy of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. On the page it’s turned to, she reads the line, “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, nor the furious winter’s rages.” (9) The passage in turn is a representation of living life, by not fearing the hot heat or the freezing cold—and just living through the extreme.
Aging is inevitable, you have to endure wrinkles and get old, like Clarissa, or you can be like Septimus and completely take yourself out of the world.
posted by Ms. Clapp @ 8:50 AM
12 comments
12 Comments:
Hi everyone.
So I was interested in the part where you guys said that Mrs. Dalloway lived like she was expected to. You said "As you “age,” you are expected to have certain responsibilities and you are expected to make achievements. Right when you are born, people expect that you will make a contribution to society as you grow older." I'm curious about the expectations from Mrs. Dalloway.
Certainly back then, women were not expected to do much (compared to now). In the begining of the novel, it says "how she had got through life on the few twigs of knowledge Fraulein Daniels gave them she could not think. She knew nothing; no language, no history,; she scarecely read a book now..." and it goes on(8). But I think that although Mrs. Dalloway was expected to just throw parties, be a socialite etc, that she wanted to find some meaning, some purpose in doing that as she aged. As time went by we could see how much she thought about what in her life created meaning. And looking back (at the end of the day), Clarissa sees that throwing parties was a way of bringing people together (much like eating in "How to Read Literature Like a Professor"). So I think that she didn't just get old and have wrinkles, but that she lived a life like she was expected to and as she aged, found meaning in that.
The last sentence really caught my attention, when you guys said "Aging is inevitable, you have to endure wrinkles and get old, like Clarissa, or you can be like Septimus and completely take yourself out of the world." I'm not sure if I quite agree with the use of 'endure', because not everyone finds themselves regretting their past. Clarissa is a great example of someone who has lived an unfulfilled life, and has gotten to the point in her life where she is able to reflect on her choices, however, there are those who have led fulfilled lives and don't need to regret anything they've done.
Point I'm trying to make is, in your essay, it seems like aging is a negative thing, where a person like Mrs. Dalloway has to "endure wrinkles and get old", or you can be like Septimus and just take yourself out before you have to go through those things. So I think that a person's youth is vital to how a person ages. When a person lives their life to the fullest, they've made their mistakes, and learned, and loved, and spoke their minds, they won't have to 'endure' wrinkles, but rather, simply get older, and have the ability to reflect on your life and to reminisce.
This mini-essay reminded me a lot of the AP prompt I just wrote my essay on...identifying a character who conforms outwardly while questioning inwardly. So basically, what is being stated here is that as one gets older, he/she is expected to conform to society more. This is very evident in today's society; just take a look around at our school and see how similarly people at our school dress. There are certain brands such as Hollister, American Eagle, etc. that people who want to be considered "cool" are expected to wear. Those who don't dress to society's normed are often deemed "wierd" and are often snubbed by their peers. This is reflected in Mrs. Dalloway, by how those in upper class society treat those who act against the social norms, such as Peter Walsh.
The idea that caught my imagination is how, in this essay, it is argued that as one ages one conforms more and more to the molds of society. It's almost linear, as if from a child one's dreams and imagination stood amazed at every little thing, but as one grows older things become regular, habitual, routine. Aging becomes a weight, a pull, like gravity, on one's features as well as one's soul. As one grows older, you must be responsible, good-natured, a citizen, have 2.4 children and a dog.
It seems that Clarissa's life roughly reflects that hyperbole. Her youth was spent in love, but now passed she is expected to be a wife. However, Septimus is shown as the opposite. He, like a baby, must be cared for and watched over and is dismissed as insane for seeing beauty and meaning in everything. He gives this aging dilemma the cold shoulder and takes his life almost in defiance, in spite. He dies young. I wonder if he means to say that those who rebel are the ones who are young?
I kinda having a hard time understanding your essay. It does sound like aging is negative, but I think Mrs.Dalloway takes it better than most people. Like she actually accepts the fact that she is aging. Every memory she remembers and mentions she really doesn't have any regrets. She remembers how she loved Sally and even though they don't feel like that anymore, she doesn't regret those feelings. She might not have done alot of things in her life, but she is content with it and content how it is going for her.
Disenchantment and falling out of the Victorian age was present in this time period however in this society, the pomp and rampart are still alive! Mrs. Dalloway still hosts parties and members of this society, embody what typical British society is. In my opinion, I feel that Clarissa attempts to break out of this mind set inwardly. Although not to the same extreme as Septimus, Clarissa questions of life and death contradict the pomp of the post war era in upper class British society, that other characters embrace and don’t care to question.
What I found particularly interesting about this essay like jmama was the last sentence. I am assuming that the last sentence is the overall thematic statement that Woolf is making in Mrs. Dalloway.
I agree with the claim that as we age, we are expected to perform certain tasks or behave certain ways; this is not just true in Mrs. Dalloway, but in life as a whole. Adults, if they want a job have to dress a certain way (shirt, dress pants, etc.) where as a younger person can wear more liberal clothing. However, I do not think that the choices one has in life are to be a "Mrs. Dalloway" or a "Septimus," there has to be some grey room in between.
Also, I would probably disagree to an extent and say that it is not only society that limits us as we age; we also limit ourselves. As we age, we make choices that limit the outcomes of our future. When we are born, there are an infinite amount of paths that we can go down, but at middle-age there are significantly less. I think this is what Mrs. Dalloway gets so caught up over as she contemplates all that she did and the consequences of what she did. She might not necessarily have regretted a decision itself, but the fact that a decision limits her future.
I agree with the others who said that this mini-essay seems to put a negative spin on age. However, I do feel that Mrs. Dalloway does view growing up as a terrible occurrence. Although Septimus was young, he was not innocent in the book. In his previous life, before fighting in the war, his youthfulness and passion would indicate that he was innocent. However, it’s clear that after being in a war, especially World War I, and seeing his own friend die, Septimus had lost his innocence. Same goes for Clarissa. When she was younger, she lived her life freely, but then that life came to an end when she began a romantic relationship with Richard. Growing up to live the married life with Richard has proven to be difficult for Clarissa, as she feels she must live to this kind of “cookie-cutter wife” image with the parties and such.
There is a certain freedom and bliss that Septimus and Clarissa shared when they were younger, and now that they are older they seem to be searching for those feelings again. However, after growing up it's hard to take pleasure in the same simple things one took pleasure in as a child, such as perhaps a train ride or shoveling snow.
I feel that Peter Walsh is often mentioned when anything about age turned up in the story. When you mentioned "As you “age,” you are expected to have certain responsibilities and you are expected to make achievements", I immediately remembered how Peter was seen as a failure in Clarissa's eyes. This was simply because he hadn't found a wife and settled down yet. He was a graduate of Oxford and he has traveled to India, but these are not viewed as "achievements" that one must reach. He thinks to himself "I am not old! I'm only past fifty!" And he makes comments about the youth around him. Age is inevitable, but it isn't a hindrance to being happy.
I found the last sentence of this mini essay to be interesting, though I going have to disagree with the statement for the most part. Yes, aging is inevitable, but I think physically as any person is able to mentally have any age they wish- as with the case of Peter in the novel. I also your statement about how a person can only take the route of Clarissa or Septimus is somewhat of a fallacy. I believe that Septimus chose death because he valued his spirit and control over his life more than living, because to him,life without control is not worth. Clarissa is shown to embrace life through her parties and even though she never chooses death, she is quite aware of it also speaks of it very often and naturally.
This particular line struck interest with me, "As you “age,” you are expected to have certain responsibilities and you are expected to make achievements. Right when you are born, people expect that you will make a contribution to society as you grow older". Now this does seem true but at that time period little was expected from women. So maybe being conventional and throughing parties was what was expected of Mrs. Dalloway? Peter, on the other hand, does not seem to fit any of this expectation for he contributes nothing to society and has not seemed to change much from the description of his younger self.
To go along with what the group said about Clarissa’s take to aging, I felt that she also forced herself to conform to what society wanted which was throwing parties and living extravagantly because she was getting older and felt that she could do nothing else. Like we talked about in class discussions, Clarissa seems to be envious of the way Septimus dealt with his aging- which was to kill himself. As Clarissa grew older, she grew farther away from what she truly wanted to do with her life and realizes the extent of her unhappiness. To compare Clarissa to another character that we have learned, Miss Brill is somewhat like Clarissa in the way that she takes to aging. She tries to avoid the fact that she is becoming older until it is pointed out to her by a young couple. In Mrs. Dalloway, the death of Septimus brings to light how old Mrs. Dalloway has become and how she is fearful of it.
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